Once again, Hillary Rodham Clinton leads in a poll. This time, she was top choice when people were asked which major 2008 presidential candidate would make the scariest Halloween costume.
Asked about costume choices, 37 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos survey this month chose New York Sen. Clinton, the front-runner among Democratic presidential contenders. Fourteen percent selected former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who leads Republicans in national polls.
No other candidate exceeded 6 percent.
Clinton was the choice of four in 10 men and one-third of women. While a predictable two-thirds of Republicans picked her, she also was the choice of 18 percent of Democrats. Among members of her own party, that made her second only to Giuliani as the scariest costume.
About one-third of independents, nearly half of whites and just over half of conservatives selected her.
Giuliani was the choice of 17 percent of men and 12 percent of women. About one-fifth of minorities and city residents and one-quarter of Democrats also picked him.
While many conservatives have doubts about Giuliani's candidacy because of his moderate views on abortion and other social issues, only 6 percent of that group said they thought he would make the scariest costume. That is about the same number as those who chose Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,013 adults conducted from Oct. 16-18. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.